Charles R. Pellegrino

Charles R. Pellegrino (born 1953) is an American writer, the author of several books related to science and archaeology, including Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Ghosts of the Titanic, Unearthing Atlantis and Ghosts of Vesuvius. Errors in Pellegrino's book The Last Train from Hiroshima (2010) prompted its publisher to withdraw it within a few months of publication. Pellegrino also falsely claimed to have earned a PhD.

The New York Times initially praised the book as "sober and authoritative" and as a "firm and compelling synthesis of earlier memoirs and archival material".[2] Nevertheless, a month later the New York Times questioned claims made in Pellegrino's book:

[The book] claims to reveal a secret accident with the atom bomb that killed one American and irradiated others and greatly reduced the weapon’s destructive power… There is just one problem. That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay… But Mr. Fuoco… never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor.[3]

Veterans of the 509th Operations Group, the Air Force unit which dropped the atomic bombs, issued a detailed list of substantive problems with many of the book's claims about the bomb and the Air Force personnel involved.[4]

The New York Times added, "Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. . . . [H]e said he would rewrite sections of the book for paperback and foreign editions."[3] Despite Pellegrino's claim in The New York Times that he had been "duped" by Fuoco, further investigation revealed that Pellegrino had repeatedly mentioned one of the book's most disputed claims (a supposed fatal accident at Tinian Island on 4 August 1945) before Mr. Fuoco had allegedly confided it for him.[5][6] Doubts also arose about the existence of two westerners allegedly present in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing.[7]

On 1 March 2010, Henry Holt announced it had halted publication of Last Train from Hiroshima.[7]

Pellegrino subsequently revised the text to remove some of the disputed content. The book was retitled "To Hell and Back" and released by a different publisher in 2015.[8]

Pellegrino claimed to have received a PhD in 1982 from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.[1] Victoria University denied that claim.[9][10][11][12] Pellegrino responded that the university had "stripped him of his Ph.D. because of a disagreement over evolutionary theory".[9] The New Zealand Herald reported that Pellegrino claimed his credentials had been restored by 1997.[11] The university investigated the matter, and in 2010, The New York Times reported:[1]

In an e-mailed statement, Professor Pat Walsh, vice chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington, confirmed that Mr. Pellegrino had been a Ph.D. student in the 1980s. "He submitted a thesis which in the unanimous opinion of the examiners was not of a sufficient standard for a Ph.D. to be awarded," Mr. Walsh said. "Following complaints from Pellegrino, an investigation was carried out by the University. In 1986, Pellegrino appealed to Her Majesty the Queen. The case was then considered by the Governor-General who disallowed the appeal. Accordingly, Pellegrino was never awarded a Ph.D. from Victoria and therefore could not have had it stripped from him or reinstated at a later date."[1]

^Pellegrino, Charles R. Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections. Paperback ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN0-06-075100-2

^Jacobovici, Simcha and Pellegrino, Charles R. The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History. Paperback ed. New York: HarperOne, 2008. ISBN0-06-120534-6